With it being Halloween season and all, we've got an especially spoooooky edition of Release Notes for you. First-ever user-designed Doodle: You may have noticed that once in a while, we change our homepage logo to match a special occasion -- for example, we've done it for Earth Day, the finale of YouTube Play, and yesterday's one billionth subscription milestone. But this Halloween we're especially jazzed because the Doodle you'll see on the homepage was designed by xperpetualmotion, a YouTube community member and Rhode Island School of Design student. Here's how she came up with the icon you see below: "I tried out a lot of different Halloween imagery before deciding on the classic 'holes cut out of a white sheet' ghost. It makes me smile every time, because what else could this kid possibly have under there that makes him that shape? I wanted the logo to be something fun and clever, and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do!" We certainly do! Thank you, Karen.

YouTube's first user-designed Doodle, by xperpetualmotion

Global Halloween films: If you're in the U.S., U.K., Canada or Australia, we've got some exciting news to add to your seasonal mirth: our friends at Crackle made sure their Halloween offerings could be viewed by horror fans around the world, marking the first time a studio's made several full-length movies simultaneously available in multiple territories on YouTube. Click here for regional viewing dates for Underworld: Evolution, Idle Hands, Mary Reilly, The Blob and The Bride.

Report a bug: No, we don't mean the creepy crawly kind, but the kind that may indicate something's broken. If you come across a problem on the site, scroll down to the new "report a bug" link at the bottom of any YouTube page. Clicking it will allow you to take an easy screenshot of the page and add further details in the pop-up box:

New "Send feedback" form

African language launches: YouTube's now available in Amharic and Swahili. Click on the language link at the bottom of the page to change your language settings.

Type non-English text with the virtual keyboard: We've made it easy for people to find videos in non-Latin script-based languages; the on-screen keyboard is available in 26 languages (Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swahili, Swedish, Vietnamese, Slovenian, Romanian, Ukrainian). To use the virtual keyboard, switch the language of the site to one of the supported languages and click on the keyboard icon in the search box.

Here's where you can turn on the virtual keyboard

More efficient 3D player: Our new player for 3D videos is much faster than the previous player, especially for HD resolution. Try enjoying your favorite 3D clips in high resolution and full screen with no lag.

The BooooooTube Team

UPDATE (8pm PT): We just received this video from Karen, to go along with her Doodle:

Tech demos. They’ve been around as long as... well, technology. They’re helpful. They’re useful. They’re also a little boring. That’s why tech demos often go overlooked by so many people. Unfortunately, it’s generally the people who could benefit most from them that never even see them.

So we figured, what tech demos need is a fresh start. A few creative minds willing to take a shot at making them worth watching and sharing. And maybe, just maybe, make tech demos so cool, that they’ll inspire others to make their own.

That’s why we created Demo Slam. It’s a platform that allows you to put a new twist on sharing tech goodness. Demo Slam rests on the belief that the world’s creativity is all it takes to turn boring, old tech demos into entertaining, exciting awesomeness. For example, watch Zach Miller do a 20-foot search:

The YouTube community has shown the world time and time again, just how incredibly far a little imagination can go. We’d love to see that same YouTube magic become a part of Demo Slam. If you triumph, you’ll be featured in the Demo Slam Hall of Champs. That also means you’ll get exposure elsewhere online, courtesy of Google. Best of all, it’s a way to help a lot of people discover something cool.

There’s just too much great tech out there for everyone to go on not knowing it exists. And now, with the help of people like you, the whole world will have a place where they can find out about it. So be different, be crazy, be unique, and submit a demo. All it takes is one to teach millions something new.

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, is writing weekly guest posts for the YouTube blog on filmmaking in the digital age. You can catch up on previous posts here.

Since I started working in web video, the most common misconception I face is, web video equals low quality video. This week we asked “What do you think the differences are between making videos for the web versus other venues like film festivals or TV?” on YouTube's Facebook fan page. Though there were a lot of positive voices talking about the immediacy, democracy and audience engagement of web video, some of the comments unsurprisingly echoed this idea.

Quality, quality and um.... quality!

Quality, length, content, plot.

The web accepts anything.

Sure, one of the most exciting things about the web is that anyone can upload. Of course, that means that not all the videos we see are going to reflect even our most basic standards for quality video -- a steady camera, clean images, good lighting, clear sound. On the other hand, right alongside the cat videos (which I admit, I do get a kick out of), works of video art can happily coexist.

We've spent the first "section" of our “Modern 101 for Emerging Digital Filmmakers" providing an overview of web video -- talking to filmmakers about why they make web video, sharing websites every filmmaker should know, and offering tips on taking your first digital steps as a filmmaker. We're about to move into our production section where we'll interview filmmakers on the equipment they use, go behind the scenes to hear how they make their videos, and demystify uploading, codecs and metadata.

Before we enter this nuts and bolts section of the series, I wanted to tackle this last misconception regarding quality. Quality concerns are some of the most common reasons I hear filmmakers saying they aren’t interested in uploading their work, and there are a couple counterpoints I’d like to offer:

Player, length and file sizes are increasing because viewers actually want to watch high resolution, great-looking video on their computers and even TV, as devices like Google TV come on the market.

Filmmakers, like the Neistat Brothers who recently landed an HBO series, but also like our very own filmmakers who use their Howcast spots to woo clients, are getting jobs based on the videos they upload to the web. Make sure every spot you upload is one you’re proud to put your name on because web videos = calling cards.

60% of internet users watch videos online and that number is up 33% in 2.5 years. In other words, the audience is here and growing. And as more and more television viewers migrate to the web or simply plug their televisions into their computers, they will come to expect and want higher and higher quality video from the web.

Click around. Don’t just watch the videos that appear in your Facebook feed. Sure, I got that video with those poor fainting kittens emailed to me yesterday too, but I also spent 15 minutes watching this beautiful, quiet short, “Mei Ling,” which I discovered on the Futureshorts channel.

I asked Luke Neumann, a filmmaker who constantly impresses us with his stellar Howcast videos, why he puts so much effort into his web videos and he said, “Because you never know who could stumble across them." When you watch his videos, I think you can see he’s driven by much more than that -- for this spot alone he rented a crane and “moved” a building in After Effects:

Still, access to potential fans, funders and future employees is at least one simple, solid argument for filmmakers who are skeptical about quality work having a place on the web.

Next Friday, we’ll learn Neumann’s tricks for making great video like this on a budget while he walks us through how he shot “Zombie Attack.”

UPDATE 7/29/13: We've released a new version of this widget that replaces the ones described below. You can read about it here or dive into the technical details here.

Early on (we're talking '06 here, people!), the yellow subscribe button made its debut so the latest videos from your favorite channels could make a beeline to your YouTube homepage/eager eyes. Today, the button that’s been immortalized as a throw cushion hits an important landmark: it’s been clicked over one billion times. And who was the lucky channel to get that billionth hit? It was MachinimaSports, who are, not coincidentally, on our homepage on Friday.

So what’s next for subscriptions? Turns out, we’ve got a spankin’ new widget that any video-maker can embed on his/her website or blog. It lets people subscribe to your YouTube channel with a single click, without having to leave your site to log into YouTube or to confirm their subscription. The entire process happens in the widget.

Give it a try! All you need to do is embed the code below into the source code of your website or blog, in the same way you embed a YouTube video.

Futureshorts is one of the largest short film aggregators in the world. In this guest blog post, founder and creative director Fabien Riggal talks about curating shorts on YouTube, including a selection from their new live event series, Future Shorts ONE.

We passionately believe in the medium of short film and its creativity, giving filmmakers the opportunity to experiment, learn and come up with innovative ideas. Our company was set up to create the most important audience and community around short film, creating a culture of experiencing a showcase of films in a social thinking environment. The Internet brings people together in communal spaces to watch films and create a dialogue around them. This is what filmmakers want. This is what audiences want.

Today, we're curating the YouTube homepage with films from Future Shorts ONE, a new global event launching on Saturday, November 6. In the video below, we talk about why we chose these films to represent ONE, along with some information on the event:

ONE takes place in 12 countries and 50 cities every month, with live simultaneous events that connect thousands of people around the world. Each location showcases the same selection of the world's boldest short films, many of them on YouTube on our channel, alongside the best in local live music, performance and design. To find out if ONE will be near you, click here.

We’ve made several recent product improvements to help more advertisers easily set up and manage campaigns with Promoted Videos. First, we’ve expanded the ability to set up video ad campaigns on ads.youtube.com beyond the US to Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. For anyone outside the U.S., the campaign will be tied to your Google AdWords account. Secondly, we’ve added Promoted Videos into our Video Targeting tool so you can select specific videos for advertising against in addition to appearing against search results and related content on YouTube. Finally, with our Promoted Video API in AdWords in beta, agencies can now use Promoted Videos to manage campaigns across multiple clients.

We’re excited about this momentum and look forward to building on viewer choice when it comes to advertising. We talked at length this week with the guys at ReelSEO about Promoted Videos, so read on if you'd like to know more about our plans.

More and more of our YouTube partners are hitting subscriber numbers in the 100,000s and even in the 1,000,000s. We want to help more of you to get to those kind of subscriber numbers, which is why we’re starting a new monthly feature called “On the Rise.”

Here’s how it works: every month, we’ll pull together a list of partner channels whose subscriber rate has quickly accelerated in the last 30 days but who still have less than 100,000 subscribers. We’ll winnow that list down to a handful of channels, and then we’ll ask the community to vote on one channel to be featured on the YouTube homepage and get promoted through our social media channels on Twitter and Facebook.

So, here are the four channels vying for the inaugural spotlight, in alphabetical order:

golfsays it all: this channel consists of golf videos, tips and lessons, aggregated from Tour Links Putting Greens, BunkerShot.com, NationalSchoolForms.com and Show Me the Golf.

kalebnation, a 22-year-old vlogger who says he enjoys “wild rumpuses.”

optibotimusis “just a simple guy” that does toy reviews. “I typically stick to what I grew up loving,” he writes on his channel. “Transformers, mostly.”

You’ve got one week, until the end of the day on November 2, to vote for your favorite in the top right corner of this blog. We plan to showcase the winner on our homepage on November 6. You can also nominate yourself or your friends for next month’s feature in the comments section of this blog post (though please note: comments are moderated due to spam).

Earlier this month, a small team from Google and YouTube spent a week in Iraq on a trip arranged by the Department of Defense’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO). Our goals were to explore opportunities for Google in Iraq, to understand the landscape of Internet access and connectivity in the country during this critical transition period, and to bring top-voted questions from YouTube to Iraqi leaders in a series of interviews. We met with students, private sector companies, NGOs and Iraqi leadership in the Kurdish city of Erbil in the north, and in Baghdad.

Regardless of your feelings about the Iraq War, it’s immediately evident upon arrival just how completely the country missed the Internet boom during Saddam Hussein’s regime. Internet penetration rates in Iraq are among the lowest in the Middle East—somewhere between one and eight percent. Only 15 percent of Iraqis say they use the web, and the largest percentage of them live in Baghdad. There are no commercial data centers in Iraq and much more fiber connectivity is needed to meet consumer needs. Most connections are via satellite, and those who do have connections pay dearly for it—we heard estimates of up to $150 U.S. dollars per month for a 512kb connection. To incentivize and enable private companies to lay more fiber in Iraq, a complex set of roadblocks must be addressed—from security concerns to regulatory frameworks to licensing structures. As the country is still struggling to form a government more than seven months after its last election, much of this progress has been stalled.

There are signs of progress, however. Mobile penetration has skyrocketed in Iraq in the past seven years, from effectively zero percent in 2003 to over 70% today. And the Iraqi people are highly educated. We met with dozens of computer science students at Salahaddin University in Erbil and at Baghdad University, and though they lack equipment and resources, they’re highly motivated to innovate and believe the web is a critical component of their economy’s future.

Many young people in Iraq and around the world submitted questions in Arabic and English for three interviews we conducted in partnership with Middle Eastern news agency Al Arabiya. Google Translate enabled anyone to vote on their favorite questions regardless of language, and we brought the top five questions to current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government in Erbil, Dr. Barham Salih, and Iraqi politician and once the interim Prime Minister of Iraq, Ayad Allawi. Here is the television special that Al Arabiya produced showcasing their answers:

The Iraqis we met consistently expressed their desire for increased access to the web and for more access to content and tools in both Kurdish and Arabic. We believe access to information and high-speed connectivity to the cloud will be key to the future of the country. The power of the web to change people’s lives grows the further one gets from Silicon Valley, and we look forward to continuing our work with companies, governments and citizens in Iraq and other countries in transition.

The American Film Institute's AFI Fest, featuring a world class selection of short and feature films, is only a week away. In this guest blog post, AFI's Bob Jennings and Lane Kneedler discuss the festival and the treasure trove of short films they find online.

Any festival can tell you programming short films is very hard. At AFI Fest, we only have space for about 30 shorts and over 3,000 submissions to choose from. However, this year we didn’t limit ourselves to just submissions. We also travelled to other festivals and looked increasingly to the web as a source for content to curate and showcase.

It’s an incredible experience to find short films and show them in a theater with an audience. Hearing a group of strangers laughing and crying together in the dark is an almost spiritual experience. We are also delighted to showcase as many films from our Official Selections on YouTube as possible. We want to help short filmmakers find audiences in any way we can. YouTube has proven that there are huge audiences out there for this content and it’s our pleasure to help highlight as much as we can, which is why we're happy to be the guest editors of today's homepage.

AFI is also proud to be a YouTube Partner. Our channel has nearly 700 videos that include never-before-seen interviews with Master Filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese, clips from our annual AFI Life Achievement Award and more. Recently, we started posting a new video every Monday through Friday and the response has been astounding as we’re approaching nearly 2 million views per month.

While AFI is proud to host a prestigious film festival and continues to build a robust YouTube Channel, we are a non-profit organization that relies on a national membership program to help us preserve the history of film, educate the next generation of filmmakers and honor the artists. If you're interested in joining, check out AFI.com/members.

AFI FEST 2010 presented by Audi takes place November 4-11 in Hollywood, California. For more info visit www.afi.com/afifest.

We’d like to welcome today’s guest blogger, Annjanette Isorda, Senior Manager of New Media Business Development at the Walt Disney Company. Annjanette works with Disney Consumer Products, a division that extends the Disney brand to merchandise ranging from apparel and toys to books, magazines and even food. Today, she shares her experiences on how they use their Disney Living YouTube Channel to engage fans and communicate about holiday promotions.

The Disney Living channel was born in March 2009 when we realized that YouTube could provide a great way to answer the growing demand for entertainment and information on Disney products – everything from bridal fashion shows featuring gowns inspired by our Disney Princesses to sneak peeks of our latest toys and tech gadgets. We’ve found that YouTube has broad appeal and, unlike virtually any other channel, YouTube videos allow us to tell stories that we couldn’t convey in print or other online media. We create original content that you can’t see anywhere else for YouTube fans and the active blogger community.

As we go into the holidays, YouTube has emerged as one of the best ways for us to engage directly with a wide audience. For example, Halloween is an especially fun holiday for us at Disney. To make this year’s festivities unique, we created fun activities for the family on YouTube. We produced a "Disney Store 30 Costumes in 30 Seconds" YouTube Halloween Sweepstakes and have also set up a Halloween Dress Rehearsal Party for families to show off outfits in person (and receive free prizes!). The Disney Living channel helps us easily bridge the online and offline worlds.

Additionally, Disney Living is tricking and treating YouTubers to three scary movie spoofs, inspired by the flicks The Shining, The Ring, & The Sixth Sense. These Ghoulish Greetings are short e-greetings made to delight and surprise our audience. We hope fans will have a laugh and be inspired to share them with family and friends and participate in our Halloween contest with a video response of your own. We’ll choose five lucky winners after Halloween to win a $100 gift card to the Disney Store. We will continue to produce content like this for our YouTube channel because it is a powerful platform that allows us to create value for our subscribers and audience.

Finally, our last advice to anyone else considering building a presence on YouTube: connect it to your other social marketing efforts. We always connect our content to our Facebook fan page and share it in our tweets from Twitter. We’ve promoted the videos to the YouTube community as well to help connect more people to some of our most popular content. We have found using a mix of social media and paid advertising helps us reach both core Disney fans and newcomers.

We’re genuinely excited about engaging with our fans on YouTube and carrying on the Disney tradition of inspirational storytelling. Stay tuned — there will be more YouTube fun as we move into this year’s holiday season!

What if Michelangelo had sculpted the David and that was his one and only masterpiece? What if Francis Ford Coppola had shot one scene of The Godfather, then called it quits on a film career? What if Jim Henson had only given the world Kermit the Frog, and then decided to become a plumber? Would you still want to see these hallmarks of creativity? Chances are, you would.

What’s even more powerful than sharing these moments through video? Hearing how the lives of the people who have uploaded them have been changed. For instance, in one of the most heart-warming videos featuring a U.S. solider reunited with his dog after returning from Afghanistan, the earnings made from the video went to the local animal shelter where their pet was rescued.

Online video is evolving, and we believe there should be a place on the web where all forms of content are celebrated and brought to the masses. In fact, did you know that...

YouTube has now enabled hundreds of thousands of videos to earn money?

We’ve enabled international users from 11 markets to earn revenue from their videos?

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, is writing weekly guest posts for the YouTube blog on filmmaking in the digital age. You can catch up on previous posts here.Today being a filmmaker is more and more about using tools other than cameras and editing software – social media, mobile platforms, websites, and even augmented reality technology – to bolster the work, attract and engage audiences, and make money. Many filmmakers are being dragged into this new world kicking and screaming or simply overwhelmed by the options.

Enter Ingrid Kopp, Director, U.S. Office at Shooting People, and her Digital Bootcamp, which I got a chance to attend at DCTV in New York on Monday night. "The technology should serve you and your creative practices" -- that was one of the first things Ingrid said to the audience of about 20 filmmakers. She went on to explain that all these new technologies are like a painter's palette. If you choose all of them, you'll end up with gray. They are there for you to pick and choose what works for you and your film.

This is excellent advice but questions still remain: Which one should I use? How do I use it? And do I really have to? As filmmakers raised their hands to ask questions it became clear that tailoring a web, mobile or other technology campaign for a film is a very personal decision and should be informed by the project and the filmmaker's goals. Are they happy simply with people seeing their work? Do they need to recoup some investment? Are they trying to invoke social change? Ingrid talked about a new production title, coined by John Reese, Producer of Marketing and Distribution (PMD), which a filmmaker could hire to create and execute a digital campaign, taking all this into consideration. She compared this to hiring a cinematographer. You could opt to shoot yourself, but if you have the money, why not hire someone with experience and skill.

That said, you don't need to hire a PMD. You don't even need to build a website, post your trailer on Facebook, or send even one tweet. But, if you're ready to dive in, Ingrid offered up fantastic insights and tips, some of which I'm going to share right here:

If you do one thing, create a home for your film online -- a website, a blog, a Facebook fan page, or a YouTube channel (of course) -- so that audiences know where to go to get information about you and your project. All your other online presences should link back to this main place.

Collect email addresses and zip codes from your audience. Remember that Facebook and Twitter could shut down your profile any time. In order to retain contact with your audience, ask for their email addresses. And, while you're at it, their zip codes too. Want to plan a screening? You'll know where to start based on where your audiences live.

Put your trailer online and allow people to embed the video. Embed and spread!

If you’re going to start a fundraising campaign on a site like Kickstarter, create ancillary content around the campaign to promote it and get people excited to pitch in. Be creative with your rewards to really entice donors. Embed a video on the campaign page too -- campaigns with videos earn more.

Think about creating video clips other than your trailer that you can release strategically throughout the entire production process.

Don't do anything halfway. If you start a Twitter account for your film and only send one tweet, your project will look "dusty" as Ingrid put it -- a perfect adjective.

It's never too early to start building an audience with any kind of digital campaign. You can leverage your audience to solve problems with your film (anyone know a shooter in Dallas?), share their own footage, help with fundraising, write about your project, coordinate screenings, buy DVDs, and tell all their friends how great your film was.

In her brief but jam-packed session, Ingrid shared numerous sites, best practices, recommend reading, and noteworthy examples. Rather than link to them all here, here's a link to her Digital Bootcamp wiki where you can view the full presentation and check out tons of other resources. Ingrid called herself a bit of a "technological Utopian" and you can see that in her Creative Commons wiki where readers are also free to edit and share their own ideas.

I’m pretty sure I’m in that camp too, but I had to play devil's advocate and ask: “What do you say to filmmakers whose response to all this is, ‘I don't want to. I care about making films and not all this other superfluous, unrelated media?’ “ Ingrid simply said, “Then you don't have to. If this other stuff is distracting from your film or what’s in the frame then you shouldn’t be doing this. This should never compromise your film. My hope is that filmmakers will see these tools as another creative outlet. If we’re not embracing this technology, we, as filmmakers, could be left out of something amazing.”

I couldn't agree more. Thank you, Ingrid, for a great evening and all the information you share through your wiki, Twitter feed and Shooting People.

It was our goal to reach the widest possible audience, inviting individuals from around the world to submit a video for consideration. While our original goal had been to select 20, the jury was so moved by the quality of work submitted that we decided to honor a final list of 25. We believe the end result is 25 of the most unique and innovative video work to be created and distributed online during the past two years.

Tonight we will be celebrating this announcement with a live streamed event: YouTube Play. Live from the Guggenheim. Head to youtube.com/play for the live stream and for highlights after the event.

You can also check this video out on his Watch Page. Let us know in the comments section of Chris’ video if you have great tips to share on how to build your brand and audience or if you have feedback for Chris. We’d also love to hear how your videos have been impacted once you have used some of these tips to better engage with your audience.

This post concludes our Tips for Partners series. We have covered many important topics to help you leverage and build your own hit channel and encourage you to utilize all of YouTube’s tools and features to build the best channel possible.

We enjoyed hearing from our partners to find out their optimization tips, so we will be moving this initiative to the Partner Communications Hub and posting a Partner Education Spotlight on a regular basis. If you have a great optimization tip you want to share, let us know and we would love to spotlight your video as well as your channel!

Thanks for tuning in and providing great feedback. Here on the YouTube Partnerships team, our goal is to support and educate our partners on how to use various tools to better create and share content. That, in turn, gives you the power to do what you do best: creating videos that represent the Zeitgeist of our world. So if that means funny cat videos or how to make your house more energy efficient, go forth and prosper!

As Conan O'Brien's crew plans for their 24-hour marathon live stream on YouTube, in what promises to be a kooky peek into life at Team Coco HQ, we thought it was best for them to tell you about it themselves. Here's Aaron Bleyaert, the blogger for the new CONAN show on TBS.

People constantly ask me questions like, "Hey, Aaron, what's it like to work at such an awesome show?" Or, "Hey, Aaron, what do you guys do all day in your offices?" Or even, "Aaron, you are incredibly handsome -- how can one man have such stunning good looks?" The answer to that last one is simple: I moisturize.

For the answer to the first two, I invite you to tune in to the massive online comedy event we're calling "The Live Coco Cam." As the word "live" implies, it will be live. And as the word "Coco" implies, it will be TOTALLY AWESOME. Starting today at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, we invite you to take a look inside the wonderfully weird offices of the brand new CONAN show as we prepare for our November 8 debut on TBS. We're shoving a camera in the second floor stairwell of our offices and will be broadcasting all of the behind-the-scenes comedy madness live for 24 hours. Here's a taste of the crazy:

Who's gonna show up? What's gonna happen? As our Live Coco Cam event unfolds, all the weird, funny and tender (yes, tender) moments will be captured and uploaded to Team Coco's official YouTube channel so you don't miss a second of the action. In addition, we'll be tweeting about the events through the day and night from our Team Coco Twitter account and will be recapping all the events after they happen (as well as after the event ends) over on our show blog at TeamCoco.com... That is, if I survive the next 24 hours. ;)

So tune in at youtube.com/teamcoco and enjoy 24 hours of Live Coco Cam antics...whatever they may be!

Think of YouTube as your big, extended family; a large community who wants to engage with you, share their opinion, and help you be successful. So help them help you. Use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Google Buzz to engage with your audience and let them know how to keep track of your different YouTube channels, social media outlets, and ways to contact you.

Use your referral headers to see what specific sites are your top referrals. You can see your referral headers through our Insight tool by going to ‘My Videos’ and clicking on ‘Insight’ under one video. Next, click on “Discovery” and then “External Links”, and set the date range. You can only see a breakdown of external links on an individual video, so make sure to review your top videos to see if your referrals are consistent or different.

An example of referrals for a video:

Customize your interaction with your audience based on your top referrals. If your top referrals are Facebook, Twitter, or Buzz, make sure to let your audience know via those mediums when your next video is live. If your top referrals are YouTube subscribers, post a bulletin to your subscribers letting them know you’d love for them to share your video with one new person.

To Do:

Don’t be shy, push your content out there. Engage with your audience through YouTube, Twitter, Buzz, Facebook, MySpace and other social media through links to your channel and videos.

Widen your reach. A huge amount of view counts come from embedded playbacks so take advantage of this and embed your videos. Share your video with blogs/sites aimed at your audience. They may embed your video because it reaches their target audience.

Ask for subscribers! Subscribers can be the best marketers to push your content to different blogs and social media. Ask for subscribers on your channel, through your videos, or through annotations, and then ask them to share your video.

It’s free to ask for feedback (just keep a thick skin). Make a video where you ask your viewers what they liked or didn’t like or what types of videos they would like to see.

Look at your comments, see what your viewers are saying and feel free to respond. Also, through ‘Insight’ you can see the words most commonly used in comments of your videos.

Run Promoted Videos to get more eyeballs on your videos and drive community engagement.

Two minds really are better than one. Collaborate and network with other YouTubers and amaze us with what you can create together.

Now is a great time to log into your account and check out your top referrals and make sure viewers know how to connect with you through social media. Tune in this Thursday (our last post in this series) to hear from one of our partners who’ll discuss first-hand how he engages with his YouTube audience and uses social media to increase his audience and build loyalty.
Julie Kikla and Mahin Ibrahim, Account Managers, YouTube Partnerships recently watched "Dude Perfect™ (Amazing Basketball Shots) - HD."

Today, the YouTube Partner Program for Musicians, aka Musicians Wanted, extends beyond the U.S., meaning that musicians in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., Sweden, the Czech Republic, Argentina and New Zealand now have the opportunity to make money from their videos. Here’s more about the program from two longtime partners, Pomplamoose’s Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn:

So, if you’re a musician based in any of the territories listed above – or if you’re based in the U.S. and haven’t gotten around to it yet – head over to this sign-up page and register today. After all, you’ve got nothing to lose and potentially a whole lot to gain!

Back in July, we announced the launch of YouTube Leanback in beta. If you didn’t get a chance to check it out, Leanback is a new way to experience YouTube on a big screen. We named it “Leanback” so you could do just that: kick back and, with as little effort as possible, enjoy hours upon hours of YouTube videos. When you go to www.youtube.com/leanback, you’ll note that videos start playing immediately, are always presented in full screen and HD (when available), and you can easily browse using just the arrow keys on your keyboard.

Today, YouTube Leanback moves forward into a new role at the center of the YouTube experience on Google TV, which you’ll start seeing in U.S. stores this week. When you view Leanback on Google TV (or online), videos based on your subscriptions and viewing history will begin playing immediately. If those don’t pique your interest, Leanback offers 10 channels, updated daily, featuring popular and interesting videos in genres like Comedy, Entertainment, News, Science & Technology, How To & Style, and more. You can also watch full-length movies and TV shows rented from youtube.com in the highest quality.

Eyeglasses, the bicycle, the latex condom...What everyday products or services have changed the world as we know it and solved some of the world’s biggest problems?

For the past month, this question has been posed through a website called Search for the Obvious. From the Internet to the ironing board, users from around the world have flocked to Search for the Obvious to add the products and services that are their ideal of elegant, problem-solving design. A panel of judges from media and design has been evaluating the contributions, and a few of their favorites have been featured on the site. Search for the Obvious is run by Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture fund investing in entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty.

Today, Search for the Obvious launched a challenge that dares videographers, designers and creatives of all kinds to come up with the craftiest campaign to promote one of the judges’ favorite picks: sewers. Succinctly put: “Sanitation is sexy: make it obvious” – through a video, advertisement, catchy tagline or other form of media, participants are being asked to demonstrate why sanitation is the most important issue currently facing the developing world. (For some inspiration on creative video campaigns, view this video for "The Girl Effect"). Submissions are due by Sunday, November 21, at 11:59 p.m. PT.

The winning video(s) will be featured on our homepage in early December. Winners will also be featured through major media sources, such as Design Observer, and will be recognized by Acumen Fund as champion marketers of the world’s problems and most useful solutions.

Expect to hear all their platinum hits, as well as a sneak peek from new release The Incredible Machine which comes out later this week. Also keep an eye out for special guest appearances from Ronnie Dunn (of Brooks and Dunn) and country vocal quartet Little Big Town.

Sugarland spent some time with director Kenny Ortega this week in preparation for the live stream. The man who directed Michael Jackson (This Is It) also offered up some suggestions for Jennifer and Kristian’s choreography:

This is the third installment of the “Unstaged” series brought to you by YouTube, American Express and Vevo. The online experience kicks off with a pre-show that includes a special interview during which the band answers questions that were tweeted earlier this week. At showtime, fans can also participate by picking from three camera angles (including a new “Front Row” cam) or by voting on what song the duo should play as an encore.

If you miss the stream this evening, tune in for highlights from the show on Sugarland’s channel shortly thereafter.

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, is writing weekly guest posts for the YouTube blog on filmmaking in the digital age. This is her third post.

Every time I talk to a filmmaker, I learn about a new (often, just new-to-me) website for filmmakers I should check out. I email and text myself the links. Intent on eventually spending some time on the sites, I keep multiple tabs open on my browser. Needless to say, it’s hard to keep track of them all. I thought consolidating a list of the sites I’ve come across through recommendations, articles, and conferences would be helpful to me, and hopefully you, too. So, here I go, with one disclaimer: this list is not exhaustive. I tried to stick to key categories but if I wanted to cover everything cool going on on the web for filmmakers, I’d have to quit my day job. Got another recommendation? Share it in the comments below!Sites to help you....be in the know

IndieWire IndieWire is all the indie industry news -- big to small. Want to get some costume ideas based on movies of the year? Interested in the hoopla over NC-17 ratings and when they began? They’ve got a network of bloggers and you’ll soon find your favorites.

WorkBook Project Founded by Lance Weiler, WorkBook Project is not just articles and blog posts. It’s an open collaborative network that covers the most exciting creative work happening on the web. You can explore case studies, hear thought-provoking interviews, attend workshops, and pick up the tools you need to launch your own web or multi-platform project.

Cinematech Of all the things you can read of Scott Kirsner’s, I actually suggest his books, which you can download off his blog, linked here. Scott is out there talking with filmmakers about new technology and sharing all his knowledge along the way at festivals (I heard him at SXSW), conferences (he started The Conversation), and in his books, of which my favorite is Fans, Friends And Followers: Building An Audience And A Creative Career In The Digital Age.

....distribute

YouTube Rentals Obviously, you know about YouTube or you wouldn’t be here. But, are you familiar with YouTube rentals? I got to sit in on a talk about the feature at SXSW this year and I think it’s a really intriguing option for filmmakers looking to share short films and longer work and make some money on screening. It’s one way the web is putting distribution and monetization in the hands of creators by letting them control who watches and set the prices for their work.

Snagfilms Snagfilms distributes documentaries from longtime masters as well as emerging filmmakers. Viewers can watch free, and documentarians, who have historically had a difficult time getting wide distribution, can tap into a growing viewer network.

OpenIndie Started by Arin Crumley, OpenIndie, which is still in beta, aims to be a way for filmmakers to coordinate and launch their own theatrical screenings by connecting them with audiences and exhibitors directly. The exciting idea is based on the Crumley’s own distribution model for Four Eyed Monsters, which he co-directed.

...connect

ShootingPeople Want to know what projects others filmmakers are up to? Take a workshop? Find someone to animate your open sequence? Get a new gig? ShootingPeople is the place to network with other filmmakers online (and in person -- lots of cities host nights out for “shooters”).

Ning Hopefully you use Facebook and Twitter for things other than planning poker night. Both are excellent platforms for connecting with audiences and potential collaborators. You may not know about Ning though. With Ning you can create your own social network around your film, the topic of your film, or filmmaking in general. It’s a very turnkey solution for engaging with an audience and I think it offers a more dynamic experience for your fans and audiences than a blog alone.

....learn new tricks

CreativeCow When a filmmaker writes in with an editing question our Post team can’t solve we head to the CreativeCow forums. There is an unbelievable amount of expertise you can easily tap into.

Videomaker When a filmmaker writes in with a question about a camera or software, we head to Videomaker. They’ve also got a really nice stable of nuts and bolts tutorials on things like lighting and green screen.

NYVS I just learned about New York Video School and I think it’s going to be a really easy way to pick up new or polish up old skills. They’re building a comprehensive suite of “courses” that include videos on things like choosing a hard drive and uploading to YouTube.

...make some money

Kickstarter If you haven’t heard about Kickstarter yet, you may be spending too much time in the edit room. It seems like every week I see a new project being funded on Kickstarter in my Facebook feed...and I contribute. Kickstarter makes fundraising painless (compared to calling Mom and Dad or going to door-to-door) for the filmmaker and fun for the fans to take part in a project.

Howcast Emerging Filmmakers Program Hey, if I didn’t think we offer filmmakers an excellent way to get experience and pick up some extra cash, I wouldn’t be here. Many of our filmmakers call Howcast videos their “fun work.” If you’re familiar with our videos, you know we give filmmakers a ton of creative freedom -- it’s great for their reels and their pocketbooks. Also worth checking out:, TurnHere, Demand, and StudioNow who offer programs for freelancers with different projects, requirements, and rates.

....compete

OnlineVideoContests Though I’ve entered plenty and never won, I’ve always been a sucker for video contests. OVC is the place to find out who’s giving away $500 for a :30-spot and who’s doling out $10,000 for a 3-minute music video.

Withoutabox Long gone are the days of mailing VHS tapes in manila envelopes. Withoutabox has brought film festival application into the digital age. Apply, apply, apply way!

Poptent Poptent works with some major brands to bring commercial work to filmmakers all over the world. Download the requirements and upload your video. If your work is selected by that brand you could be looking at a new client and a paycheck.

Overwhelmed by all the new information? Subscribe to these sites’ newsletters and YouTube channels, follow them on Twitter, and become a fan on Facebook -- let their news comes to you.

How much television did you watch yesterday? A half hour? Three? If you're anything like the average American, you watched for five hours (according to a Nielsen study). Five. Hours. For some, that's 30% of your waking day. In truth, 'watching' is a relative term. TV often provides background noise in many households, and people are rarely focused on the content alone.

Contrast that to watching YouTube or other online video, and, as an advertiser, you might think twice about where your ad dollars are best invested. You want your money where viewers are engaged. A new study that Google conducted with Next New Networks and Magid revealed that viewers of web original content (think Funny Or Die, Machinima, or Key of Awesome) are 2.5 times more likely to pay full attention to online video than they are to pay full attention to the TV show they are watching. Advertising Age discussed the research in-depth last Friday.

This type of engagement makes sense, when you consider the very social and viral nature of web original content. Let's say a friend emails you a link to something they found funny. Or you wonder if 'The Social Network' is going to live up to the hype. With web originals, you're in control of the content, and it takes a fresher, more topical format than mainstream TV. It is also a lot easier to devote your full attention to a 3 minute video than a 30 minute show. When people are engaged, they can also be educated, informed, and persuaded. They are also likely to share content with their friends. 23% of the YouTube sample said they go on to email video links to friends or post links to Facebook or MySpace. This is the new definition of word of mouth.

Similarly, when it comes to video advertising associated with web original video versus TV, web original viewing proves to be advantageous in several areas. Web original viewers are less likely to:

Fast forward through ads (compared to those who watch TV shows using a DVR)

Talk to other people

Browse the Internet while watching

Do things around the house

Furthermore, the study indicated that significant proportions of web original video viewers take advantage of the medium's interactive elements:

More than half read comments posted by others

Nearly half rate the videos

Four in ten share the videos with others

Three-quarters say they use some means to tell others about their favorite Web original videos, with significant proportions using email, social networking sites, and conversation

If you're interested in more points of the study, check out Next New Network's release. This is further evidence that, on YouTube, you have the audience’s attention. What you say to them is up to you..

Next week the YouTube Play jury will announce the top 25 videos that it selected from the 23,000 submissions received. We’re busy working with the Guggenheim to make sure that this announcement is like no other. Right now we can’t tell you who those 25 are, but we can tell you a little about the gala we’re going to throw to celebrate it.

YouTube Play: Live from the Guggenheim will be a live streamed event featuring music, collaborations, eye-popping projections and, of course, the most creative video. If you’re in New York, you can catch some of the projections on the façade of the Guggenheim on the night of October 21. If you’re not, then head to youtube.com/play on October 21 to catch the event live, starting at 8 p.m. ET.

So, who’s going to be there? Here’s a sneak peek of the lineup:

OK Go: The Chicago-based four-piece have torn up the rulebook with their music videos, picking up a Grammy and tens of millions of views in the process. "This Too Shall Pass" is in the YouTube Play shortlist.

Michael Showalter: The MC for the evening is also the star of Comedy Central’s Michael and Michael Have Issues, has a hit online with CollegeHumor.com’s "The Michael Showalter Showalter," and used to be on The Daily Show.

That’s it for now. You’re going to have to head to youtube.com/play on the night to find out who made the top 25 and what things really look like when YouTube meets the Guggenheim.

It took Linus some time and multiple attempts before he found his niche as a “Professional Unboxer.” When Linus started his channel, he began to use YouTube Insight to figure out which of his videos were most popular. He realized he had found his specialty when he got thousands of views on his unboxing of the Radeon 5770 Direct X11 video card, which to this day remains one of his highest viewed videos. Since Linus joined the partner program in 2009, his focus has been making videos on product unboxings and reviews. He specializes in unboxing video cards, like the GeForce GTS 450 and the Radeon 5750. He also has a great line of custom t-shirts for the unboxing enthusiast. This one is a crowd favorite.

You can also check this video out on his Watch Page. Let us know in the comments section of Linus’ video if you have great tips to share on using YouTube Insight or if you have feedback for Linus. We’d also love to hear how your videos have been impacted once you have used some of these tips to analyze the performance of your videos.Julie Kikla and Mahin Ibrahim, Account Managers, YouTube Partnerships recently watched “Movie Trailer Proposal.”

The world’s first online collaborative orchestra is back, and this time a new round of performers will be playing their part onstage at the iconic Sydney Opera House.

It seems like just yesterday that Carnegie Hall was abuzz with a sold-out performance that made headlines around the globe. Ninety-six musicians arrived in New York City, from over 30 countries, to perform together after uploading an audition video and then being chosen by the YouTube community to be a part of the exciting event. We are thrilled to invite you to audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011.

In addition to the new locale, this “second act” includes another new element: “Mothership,” a musical work from composer Mason Bates. Right now, it’s still missing something: an improvisation provided by you. Take a listen to it here and start planning your contribution.

This time there are two ways to audition, for the classical audition perform the pieces listed on the channel according to instrument. For the opportunity to contribute your own creation, choose the solo improviser—it doesn’t matter if you play trumpet, viola or didgeridoo. If you proceed to the final stages, you will join musicians from around the world in a week-long music summit with Grammy-award-winning conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who returns to guide the orchestra.

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 is a collaboration with partners the Sydney Symphony, the London Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker and many other leading institutions of the classical music world. This event is being made possible by Hyundai.